Bypass Humidifiers Are a Waste of Money

Dry Air Is Wrecking Your House and Your Family

Ontario winter air is dry, and once your furnace heats it, it gets drier still. The house starts pulling moisture out of everything that has any — including your floors, your walls and your family. This is what that looks like by the middle of winter:

• —Hardwood floors gapping and cupping. Wood gives up its moisture and shrinks. Those seams between the boards in January weren't there in July, and every season you let it run, the wood loses a little more. Boards that cup or crack don't come back — that's a refinish or a re-floor.
• —Solid wood furniture, doors and trim splitting. Same thing happens to everything made of wood in the house. Doors that used to close start sticking or swinging loose, and guitar tops and cutting boards crack.
• —Paint cracking and peeling. Dry air plus the temperature swings make the paint film on your walls and ceilings go brittle. It cracks, and corners and ceiling seams are the first to show it.
• —Dry nose and nosebleeds. The lining of your nose dries out until it cracks and bleeds. It's why nosebleeds spike in winter, and why kids get them more than anyone.
• —Itchy skin, chapped lips, flare-ups. Eczema, psoriasis and plain old itchy skin all get worse in dry air. So do dry eyes and a scratchy throat.
• —You can't sleep. Dry throat, stuffy nose, a house that feels like a desert. You wake up at 3 a.m. with your mouth open, and the humidifier you're paying for hasn't budged the number on the gauge.
• —Static everywhere. Shocks off the doorknobs and the kids, static in the laundry, sparks off the couch. That's the air, not the carpet.

You Already Have a Humidifier? It's 100% a Bypass

Most people tell me the same thing: "we already have a humidifier, it's just not doing much." And they're right, it's not doing much — because if it came with the house or a builder put it in, it's a bypass unit. That's what gets installed because it's cheap and easy, not because it works.

Here's the part nobody explains: a bypass has no fan of its own. It can only make moisture when your furnace blower is running, and it needs a bypass duct that sends that warm air straight back into the return. So it spends the winter doing two things at once — wasting the heat you paid for, and running water across the pad and out the drain.

And on the coldest days, when the house is at its driest and you actually need it, a bypass has nothing left to give. So you're paying for a humidifier that doesn't humidify. I'm happy to explain exactly why, because it's my job to tell you before you buy one, not after.

• —It wastes heated air. That bypass duct is a hole between your warm supply side and your cold return. The air going through it already cost you money.
• —It wastes water. A bypass runs roughly 5 to 20 gallons of water a day across the pad, and most of it goes straight down the drain. It never hits the set point on a cold day, so the call never finishes — that's your water bill.
• —The moisture isn't going backwards in a loop — that's not the problem. A bypass gets mounted on either the supply trunk (if there's room) or the return, and it works on both. Either way there's no circle: the blower pulls it into the pathway of airflow, up through the heat exchanger, and blows it out into the ducts. The problem is how little it actually puts out for all that water.
• —Your house leaks it right back out. The moisture gets into the ducts fine — drafty windows, gaps and unsealed ductwork lose it before it settles. In a leaky older home, all that running water might only raise your humidity by 2–5%. That's it.
• —It under-sells itself. The box says it covers a house. On a real Ontario winter morning, it doesn't.
• —It's the reason your floors are gapping. You have a humidifier and your humidity is still 18%. That's the bypass not keeping up, not your house.

The Honest Truth About Bypass Humidifiers

I don't sell bypass units. Not because I can't put one in, but because I know what you're getting for the money and I'd rather tell you now than have you call me in February saying the house still feels dry.

• —It only works when the furnace runs. No blower, no moisture. And it's fighting for airflow instead of making its own.
• —It can't keep up when you need it. The coldest days are the driest days — and they're the days a bypass has nothing left.
• —It runs water to the drain all winter. Flow-through design, every single time.
• —You paid for a humidifier that doesn't humidify. That's the part I don't like selling against, so I don't.

Installed Price Instead

Ontario's 13% HST applies to every invoice and pricing listed.

Why Fan-Powered Wins

• —It has its own fan, so it puts out more moisture than a bypass unit instead of waiting on the blower.
• —No bypass duct, so warm air isn't sent straight back to the return and wasted.
• —It keeps up on the coldest days, when you actually need it.
• —It works well with newer variable-speed furnaces that run at low airflow.
• —Automatic digital control adjusts to the outdoor temperature, which helps prevent condensation on windows.

What's Included

• —Removal of your old humidifier, if you have one.
• —The bypass duct closed off, so you stop bleeding heated air through it.
• —Aprilaire 700M installed on your furnace.
• —Water supply line, drain line and control wiring.
• —Setup and a walkthrough of how to use it.